Began January 2024 following 2016 state law to “address climate change impacts” from Methane, other greenhouse gases

“There have not been any contamination charges or citations issued for residential service at this point. Beginning in 2025, we will be working in conjunction with the City Attorney and Code Enforcement regarding city action to achieve compliance…” – City Manager Bessie Scott

Learn what goes in which bin

By Allen D. Payton

An Antioch resident who contacted the Herald last week, but chose not to be identified, wrote, “thought everyone should know that the City of Antioch has hired Auditors from Republic Services (the City’s garbage collection company) to inspect, take pics, and tag recycle, garbage, yard bins that do not have the correct items. Yesterday morning I woke to a lady auditing my neighborhood and tagging with an informational “oops” tag of bins with wrong items. The lady said she will be back in 60 days to inspect bins again and at that time if items are not placed correctly a ticket with a fine will be given to the household.

I have pictures. I spoke to the Republic Services auditor she was very informative, very nice, and my can happened to be correct (from what she saw) but, almost all my neighbors got tagged and no one knew about this….

I don’t know if this is a kind of story you do, but I just thought our city should be aware…..

I’m not sure how the fines and hiring an auditor works, but I thought the city council should hire someone to clean the garbage laying around our as opposed to tagging & fining residents

Maybe there is more behind this, I’m not sure… but all my neighbors were upset…. A lot of us don’t really understand how to properly dispose of items ….

Like for example we use paper plates in my home, I’ve been placing them in brown recycling….. the auditor said this is wrong and I will be fined next month. Paper plates with food should be in the green container loose not in any plastic bag…..

So again the lady/ auditor was very informative but I just think many people including myself are not aware of proper disposal

Oh also 60 days, would be when our new Mayor starts which I am super happy he got elected (thank you Lord!! Welcome to our new Mayor Ron!!))

But he will probably start the new year with people questioning why they have fines…

Thank you.”

City Manager Explains Program

Questions were sent to staff for both Republic Services and the City, including City Manager Bessie Scott, Department of Public Safety and Community Resources Director Tasha Johnson and Environmental Resources Coordinator Julie Haas-Wajdowicz, asking about the audit, for details and who on the City staff should residents contact with questions and concerns.

City Manager Scott responded with the following, “Please note that pursuant to California Senate Bill 1383 (SB1383), the City of Antioch is required to conduct these route reviews and contamination audits, as well as issue Notices of Violations and fines should contamination persist. Note that Republic began this audit process in January 2024 for residential service, thus we are slated to wrap up our first year of audits.  Republic Services, in partnership with the City, has been educating residents around these regulations with “Oops!” tags, and if the issue persists, follow-up contact and reinspection is initiated.  In addition to this education and outreach, a post on Nextdoor went out citywide when the program first began in January of this year.  There have not been any contamination charges or citations issued for residential service at this point.

“Republic is also conducting this audit for commercial accounts, and contamination charges do occur when recycling or organics containers must service as garbage.

 I will work with Julie and liaise with Republic to discuss what additional education and outreach is needed so that customers feel like they know how to sort garbage- as we do not want our neighbors to feel unable to do this as noted below.

“Beginning in 2025, we will be working in conjunction with the City Attorney and Code Enforcement regarding city action to achieve compliance when Republic is unsuccessful.  For more on the City’s implementation of SB1383, please visit our website at: https://www.antiochca.gov/pscr/environmental-resources/sb1383-implementation-2/#overview. 

According to that webpage, “California State Senate Bill (SB) 1383 was adopted in September 2016 and went into effect in 2022. It establishes 2 statewide targets to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants by reducing the amount of organic waste disposed of in landfills.

The 2 statewide targets are:

1. Reduce organic waste sent to landfills by 75% by 2025.
2. Rescue at least 20% of currently disposed surplus food to donate to Californians in need by 2025.

Successful implementation at the local level will take effort on all parts in the City of Antioch and the community. Please visit this page for program updates and information.

SB 1383 primarily aims to achieve a sharp reduction in the generation of Methane & other harmful greenhouse gases that result from the decomposition of organic materials disposed of in landfills. Organic materials are all materials that come from plants and some materials that come from animals including all food waste, disposable paper products and yard trimmings. The State of California is mandating these reductions to address climate change impacts such as extreme heat, drought, and forest fires.”

State Senator Steve Glazer voted for the bill while then-Assemblyman Jim Frazier voted against it, which was subsequently signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.

UPDATE: According to California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), cities and counties must enforce the law and impose fines to ensure residents and businesses comply with the law or face penalties between $7,500 and $10,000 per day:

Jurisdiction Enforcement

Jurisdictions must begin enforcement of SB 1383 compliant programs on or before January 1, 2024.

Inspections and Monitoring

Jurisdictions must conduct inspections and monitor for compliance. Jurisdictions may identify a designee to fulfill these obligations.

Recordkeeping

Jurisdictions must maintain all documentation of inspections and enforcement in the Implementation Record

Penalties

14 CCR section 18997.2 requires jurisdictions to impose the following penalties:

• $50 – $100 per violation for the first violation
• $100 – $200 per violation if the entity is found in violation a second time for the same violation within one year of the first levied penalty
• $250 – $500 per violation if the entity is found in violation for any additional violations of the same section within one year of the most recent penalty

In addition to penalties, jurisdictions may also take actions, such as revoking, suspending, or denying a:

• Permit
• Registration
• License or
• Other authorization consistent with local requirements.

As with all SB 1383 regulations, jurisdictions must meet the minimum requirements, but may also implement additional, more stringent requirements.

According to the Best Best & Krieger law firm, “Under the SB 1383 regulations, if a local jurisdiction fails to adopt enforceable mechanisms (ordinances, franchise agreements, etc.) to implement the SB 1383 regulations by Jan. 1, 2022, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) can impose administrative civil penalties against the jurisdiction. Penalties vary based on the severity of the violation. Violations that substantially deviate from the SB 1383 regulations are considered to be major and will result in penalties between $7,500 and $10,000 per violation per day.

Major violations may include violations that are knowing, willful or intentional, or chronic violations. Specific major violations by a jurisdiction include:

• Failure to have any ordinance or similar enforceable mechanism for organic waste disposal reduction and edible food recovery
• Failure to have a provision in a contract, agreement or other authorization that requires a hauler to comply with SB 1383 regulations
• Failure to have an edible food recovery program
• Failure to have the required SB 1383 implementation records
• Implementation or enforcement of any ordinance, policy, procedure, condition or initiative prohibited by SB 1383 regulations
• Failure to submit reports to CalRecycle regarding its implementation and compliance with SB 1383 regulations”

UPDATE 2: City Manager Scott later shared, “we are not punitive, and our enforcement mechanisms strive for (and encourage) voluntary compliance- not delving out fines.”

Paid advertisement.

Good news, Antioch! Beginning the week of May 18th, Republic Services will reinstate all curbside on-call bulky, recycling, and yard waste cleanups as well as large item and e-waste pickups. Customers whose cleanups were postponed will be contacted to have them rescheduled.

If you would like to schedule a cleanup or have any questions, contact Republic Services Customer Service at (925) 685-4711. Saturday neighborhood cleanups will also be rescheduled with dates to be determined.

Approve purchase of five new fire trucks for Con-Fire

By Daniel Borsuk

Without a whimper of a protest from a non-franchised solid waste hauler, Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to make it costly to operate a business in the county.

At the request of District 1 Supervisor John Gioia, supervisors agreed to raise the performance bond to $50,000 from $20,000 even though at one point the supervisor from Richmond attempted to press on the need to lift up the performance bond as much as $100,000.

In addition to paying for the annual performance bond, anyone conducting business as a non-franchise waste hauler in the county would have to pay $229 for an annual permit per vehicle and meet other rules the Contra Costa County Health Services Department has developed.

Independent trash hauling operators would also be subject to annual inspections and would have to adhere to other rules county supervisors established in an ordinance passed last November.

The non-franchised waste haulers ordinance is set to go be enforced in March.  County officials are uncertain how many non-franchise trash haulers there are in the county because they work undercover in warehouses and illegally dump loads usually under the cloak of darkness and in out-of-the-way unincorporated parts of the county.

“I’ve been working on this issue in North Richmond for 20 years, and if they (i.e. homeowners) can hire someone to haul their trash for $20 versus $70 they’ll do it for $20,” said Gioia.  “The question is whether we are setting the bar too low.”

The supervisor contends his District 1 in West county and District 5 in East County represented by supervisor Federal Glover tend to be hit the hardest by non-franchised solid waste haulers who illegally dump trash in unincorporated areas thereby forcing the county to spend thousands of dollars to clean up sites.

“If you make it too expensive, “warned Supervisor Candace Andersen, whose District 2 gets perhaps the least amount of trash illegally dumped by non-franchised haulers, “there will be more of a need for haulers to resort to the black market.”

District 3 Supervisor Diane Burgis, who has observed hundreds of paint cans litter Marsh Creek Road, commented, “These people can do a lot of damage with one load.  Twenty thousand dollars for a performance bond is nothing.  I’d like to set it higher. “

At the suggestion of Board Chair and District 4 Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, Gioia and other supervisors agreed the $50,000 performance bond would be a good start to assess independent trash haulers not affiliated with either of the two major trash haulers, Republic Services and Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery.  Both companies played key roles in compelling the supervisors to approve the ordinance last year.

District 5 Supervisor Federal Glover of Pittsburg said the problem of trash dumped by non-franchised haulers on vacant lots is a countywide problem, not mainly an East and West county issue.  While he supports raising the performance bond to $50,000, he said the board of supervisors needs to be proactive and needs to monitor how the non-franchised trash haulers respond to the new ordinance.

Board chairperson Mitchoff requested that Marilyn Underwood of the Contra Costa Health Services Department, the department enforcing the ordinance, to give the board a progress report in March once the ordinance becomes enforced.

Fire District to Acquire 5 New Trucks

The Contra Costa Fire Protection District will add sorely needed new fire equipment with the supervisors 5-0 consent action approval to buy five new fire engines from Golden State Fire Apparatus Inc. at a price tag not to exceed $4.6 million.  The new vehicles will be delivered to the CCFPD in January 2019.

Supervisors voted to acquire four Type I fire engines and one 100-foot aerial ladder truck from Golden State Fire Apparatus to help alleviate an aging fleet of 35 Type I engines with an average age of 9.3 years per vehicle.  All engines that are more than 10 years old, Fire Chief Jeff Carman reported, have more than 100,000 miles.  Four Type I engines targeted for replacement each have more than 125,000 miles.  One engine sustained a catastrophic motor failure while responding to a state mutual aid response in Southern California this fall.

The new aerial apparatus truck will be the fire district’s 10th ladder truck.

The county has arranged a 10-year lease agreement through PNC Equipment Financial LLC worth an amount not to exceed $4.6 million with annual payments of $460,000 at an annual interest rate of 3.5 percent.